Adnan Oktar goes crying to the courts

20082007

Adnan Oktar (AKA Harun Yahya), author of the massive & misguided Atlas of Creation, is having a hissy-fit because some WordPress blogs have brought attention to his creationist tomfoolery (thanks to Ed Darell for initially bringing this to everyone’s attention). Indeed, it appears that all access to WordPress has been blocked in Turkey, as per the ruling of the “Fatih 2nd Civil Court of First Instance, number 2007/195.” Luckily, some people have figured out how to get around the block (thanks to PZ for mentioning the resource), but this whole thing is a complete farce. As Ed has already pointed out, it’s hard to believe that the whole of WordPress is blocked in Turkey because Oktar can’t take criticism about his poorly-researched work.

This isn’t the first time Oktar has gone crying to the courts and got his way, either. As reported by IFEX, in April of this year Oktar restricted access to online forums/sites where the comments threads contained “defamatory” comments about him, the sites in question ultimately removing the content that so offends. I guess his actions show Oktar for what he really is, though; an arrogant creationist who wants to stamp out any other opinion through a court system that isn’t wise enough to understand the importance and value of free expression. I hope the WordPress admins will stand up for the freedom of speech and expression on here and not give Oktar an inch, especially since one of the most active spots I can see on my little clustrmap is Turkey and their is a solid blogging community from that region.

5 responses

[…] Adnan Oktar’s Meccianic snit. Adnan Oktar (pen name Harun Yayha, which sounds like someone depositing a pavement pizza) has got the hump after a number of WordPress blogs mentioned the general crapness of his recent book Atlas of Creation. Now he has convinced some Turkish judge to block all WordPress blogs from Turkey. PZ at Pharyngula handles the matter with his usual restraint. Thoughtful WordPresser Laelaps puts the claw in, too. […]

2 years ago my blog (I no longer use it) was blocked in Turkey. My blog was about his books and websites which are about creationism. In my blog I was mentioning his lies. In some of my writings I called him lier, fraud, dishonest etc. He applied to court because of this words. And the court decided to block my blog. In Turkey to block a website is that easy.

Sounds all depressingly familiar: Artist wannabe (interior designer) is thrown out of art school and goes on a private crusade (or rather djihad in this case) against freemasons, jews and the modern world – including evolution – in general.

I checked this guys biography in wikipedia, and I had a hard time to figure out if this was a real person or a character from South Park.

Perhaps they should have kept him in art school – I mean, how much damage can an interior designer do?

This year my wife decided to have a dry run thanksgiving day to test out her recipes. We soaked the bird in a brine solution she got at William Sonoma it really kept it moist. OMG, the turkey was so good and I get to do it again in a few days!

Who is “Laelaps”?

This is the blog of Brian Switek, a (hopefully) soon-to-be-graduating student at Rutgers University studying ecology & evolution. Here you'll find ramblings and the occasional asinine assertion involving evolution, intelligent design/creationism, conservation, paleontology, and a myriad of other topics that occupy his mind on a daily basis. What, exactly, is Laelaps? Find out here. Other questions, problems, or trauma can be addressed to evogeek_at_gmail_dot_com.